


There Is A Crack

by salazar_kat



Series: Background fics to 'Snacks and Letters' [24]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Gen, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-06
Updated: 2011-07-06
Packaged: 2017-10-21 02:17:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazar_kat/pseuds/salazar_kat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>The strongest curse I have discovered thus far is love</em> writes Severus.<br/>Two pretentious teens.<br/>Regulus tries to get Severus to see sense. Use of a sentence in a Leonard Cohen song, Anthem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Is A Crack

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Snacks and Letters](https://archiveofourown.org/works/216898) by [salazar_kat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salazar_kat/pseuds/salazar_kat), [Sionna_Raven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sionna_Raven/pseuds/Sionna_Raven). 



Severus had himself buried shoulder deep in books as he sat in the library. He heard light footsteps. He did not look around though those footfalls were so very familiar.

Sitting next to Severus, Regulus said, turning in his seat and seeing over his own sea of books, “Just try. And you don't need to be perfect by her standards, but you do need to be civil at least. Your bloody mu...Muggle-born.” Regulus corrected his mistake. Severus was so picky about that sometimes, especially with Lily Evans.

“I have nothing to offer her that would in any way...” Severus began.

“Forget your perfect offering. Just turn, nod, say “hello” and turn back. She's about to pass us by.” Regulus looked frustrated with his friend. He sounded a little exasperated. Why was Severus so keen to paint everything black? Why bother. The world was dark enough without adding more. He supposed Severus thought he was clever to dwell in the twilit lands of the mind, thinking it deep.

Surprise. Severus twisted his body around in his seat and immediately caught Lily's eye. Green. Curious. And not prepared to trust, to judge by the scowl line between her eyebrows.

“Hello, Lily.”

She looked as though she hadn't registered that Severus had spoken.

“Evans!” Regulus called at her, “Someone said hello!”

Lily frowned, her red eyebrows contracted.

Severus wished to shrink to an amoeba. And his hair was all over and unwashed and he knew he didn't have aesthetically pleasing features to her. What did he have to offer? So much more than she allowed.

“Hello, _Snivellus_. Will that do?” She moved on into the Invisibility section. Where she disappeared, nose in the air, reminding Severus that this was indeed Petunia Evans' sister.

“Never mind, she's cracked. What a waste. But she does have the manners of your typical....”

“If you say Mudblood in reference to Lily I will curse you into a million putrid pieces,” Severus snarled.

“I meant to say Gryffindor, not Mudblood. They're all cracked.” Regulus nodded knowingly.

“There is a crack in everything, there's cracks in my mind and cracks that feel like chasms where I used to think I could find love. Don't look at Lily like that. She's not yours,” Severus snarled the last three words.

“You're such a grouch. Why do you care? She left you with cracks and chasms.” Regulus had some pretty big concepts for fourteen, Severus thought. Typical teen angst and pretentiousness. He had it too.

“There is a crack in her that creates double the cracks in me. But a crack in the heart, in the mind, opens new light. Between the cracks lies my hope. Cracks also let the new light in.”

Regulus stared. Lily was gone. How could Severus keep getting lost between the cracks? He shook his head and began to read _Transfiguration And The Human Form: A Case Study in Animagi_ , fingering the book lightly as he read.

Severus opened _The Dark Arts Outsmarted_ which was his text, and had a lot of writing in the margins. “ _The strongest curse I have discovered thus far is love,_ ” he wrote, his nose almost touching the book. “ _And my weakness is maybe my greatest strength._ ”


End file.
